Elise Stefanik: “I thank my good friend, Ranking Member Foxx. Madam Chair, there are nearly 75 million women working in the United…”

“I thank my good friend, Ranking Member Foxx. Madam Chair, there are nearly 75 million women working in the United States, the most in our Nation's history. Thanks to our strong economy, nearly 3 million jobs were created in the last year, and of those jobs, 58 percent went to women. Women are graduating from college at a higher rate than their male counterparts and are increasingly their family's primary breadwinner. Despite all of these positive economic indicators, there remains evidence that in some cases women do not earn the same levels of compensation as men. Republicans strongly support equal pay for equal work, and we owe it to women to constructively engage on this important issue and put forward solutions to strengthen existing law. Democrats have put forth a bill that prioritizes trial attorneys and government regulation over women's economic empowerment. The Democratic bill, for the first time, would require data disclosure to the EEOC that collects compensation data broken down by the sex, race, and national origin of employees, while also tracking the hiring, termination, and promotion data of those employees. These intrusions into the operations of private businesses would add compliance costs exceeding $700 million per year. And on top of these onerous new requirements, H.R. 7 is a giveaway to trial attorneys by changing class action formation from opt in, to opt out.…”